Uganda: Improving Gender Relations in Coffee Farming Households in Uganda

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” (Kofi Annan)

Alex Asaba and Rose Kabugho live in the Rwenzori mountains of Western Uganda. Like many coffee farming families in Uganda, they use to view coffee as a man’s crop, where men receive the proceeds from coffee, yet women provide much of the labor. Rose explains that she use to steal unripe coffee from the garden and sell it at a low price to middlemen to pay for basic household needs and to send their children to school.

After participating in an HRNS couple seminar, Rose and Alex discovered that they were not planning together as a family. They decided to share workloads more equally and to come up with a common vision of their household. The couple reports that they have invested in their farm and their family. They diversified their income and bought a motorbike to transport their goods to the market. In addition, their children’s education is secured throughout the year. Both are motivated to increase the quality and quantity of their coffee and they report that their production has increased from 100 kg to 300 kg green coffee.

“Our household incomes and living conditions have improved. We have much more financial freedom and are now able to send our children to school.” (Alex Asaba)

They signed up to become Change Agents, a concept in which the couple promotes within their community and their farmer organization the principles of joint planning and the sharing of workloads and income.

Just like Alex and Rose, more than 17,000 households and individuals have participated in the Gender Household Approach through couple seminars, Change Agent trainings and women leadership trainings. At the same time, farmer organizations are supported to recognize the challenges that keep women from participating in their activities and are encouraged to integrate women into the Farmer Field Schools and organizational structures.